Software Updates have now been incorporated into the Mac App Store, which is not something I’m a massive fan of, but I can see why it’s been done.

The good news is that you can still update the System software using the softwareupdate command in Terminal, so nothings been broken by this change.

Gone is the option to choose how regularly your machine checks for updates.

There are now the following options

Automatically check for updates – tick this if you want to be notified when new updates are available.

Download newly available updates in the background – tick this if you have an unlimited broadband/data connection, with some updates being a couple of GB in size now, its not wise to leave this checked with a limited plan, as you could go over without realising.

Install system data files and security updates – does what it says on the tin.

Automatically download apps purchased on other Macs – I leave this unticked as I prefer to choose what takes up my hard drive space on each machine, rather than having all apps install on all machines automatically.

This enables your Mac to check for e-mail, calendar and iCloud updates whilst asleep, which is great, as it saves on syncing time when awaking a machine, the downside however is that it uses more power than the conventional sleep mode, so it’s best to use it only when plugged into the mains.